Hi and thanks for visiting the best Ravens forum on the planet. You do not have to be a member to browse the various forums, but in order to post and interact with your purple brethren, you will have to **register**. It only takes a couple of minutes. You can also use your Facebook account to log in....just click on the blue 'FConnect' link at the very top of the page.

Re: BR.com Article on Aaron Mellette

Wicked-
Very cool story, thanks for the link. I hope the kid makes it as well, always had a soft spot in my heart for the school -Elon's not a fur piece from us here in NC, EC neighbors' son went there, and a "youngster" named Cadenhead used to play for me on our men's soccer team after he graduated from Catawba College, not Elon, but right near.

Not to stray OT from your thread, but your topic got me thinking about all of the "lean" years when it seemed we couldn't draft a WR who could catch a cold in bad weather, now with Flacco "breaking out", we're finding guys all over the place who seem to be future starters. Ozzie's pretty much been at the helm for well over a decade - did the cast of scouts change, did the FO find some "answer", have we just been lucky, is there some other factor?

Re: BR.com Article on Aaron Mellette

Well, I think scouting receivers is arguably the hardest position to scout and properly gauge for the NFL.

The reality is that receivers in college are often times some of the best athletes on the field and college offenses have evolved as such to take advantage of those athletic variances in players.

Think about guys like Mike Williams from USC (6'5" 230lbs-240lbs). That guy was conceivably a "can't miss prospect" because of how dominant he was at USC. Problem was, the guy never learned how to really run routes and his lack of quickness in college didn't matter much because Matt Leinart could just throw it up in the air and let Williams go get it because of how big he was.

It takes a lot for collegiate receivers to come into the NFL and develop into a good starting receiver. Megatron may be the best receiver to be drafted in the last decade and his rookie year he had less than 50 receptions and under 800 yards.

I will say this, having a good QB will make developing receivers a lot easier. That could be why during the Boller/McNair years, the best the Ravens could do was pick up FA guys like Derrick Mason.